


Invading Spaces

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Hannibal Loves Will, Hannibal is Hannibal, Humor, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Manipulative Hannibal, Minor Margot Verger/ Alana Bloom, My First Work in This Fandom, Poor Will, Will Graham's Empathy, Will loves him back, but then it turned into something else, but they're there, even if he's a confused chicken, like VAGUE references, references to cannibalism, this was initially supposed to be a cute Halloween thing, which explains why my fucking tags are a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 20:39:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12490376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Will meets Hannibal through Alana, who knew him from her psychology courses.“I don’t know how you have the time doing a medical degree,” Alana says, shaking her head.Hannibal smiles, “I had some extra space in my schedule,” he says.“Extra time doing a residency? You might want to tell your classmates your secrets,” Will tells him. Hell, Will was in a criminology degree and he wanted to know Hannibal’s secrets.





	Invading Spaces

**Author's Note:**

> Initially this was going to be WIll, Hannibal, Alana, and Margot all cuddling up and watching movies. Now the movies only make a cameo mostly because I was mad that it turned into something new. Anyways!
> 
> This is the first work I've ever done for this fandom but I just finished the third season and my ass was salty! So I wrote this lil lovely that's probably not that great, but it is my first crack at it. My pilot fandom work so to speak lol. I hope you guys like it though!

Will meets Hannibal through Alana, who knew him from her psychology courses.

“I don’t know how you have the time doing a medical degree,” Alana says, shaking her head.

Hannibal smiles, “I had some extra space in my schedule,” he says.

“Extra time doing a residency? You might want to tell your classmates your secrets,” Will tells him. Hell, Will was in a criminology degree and _he_ wanted to know Hannibal’s secrets. He barely had time to sleep and if it weren’t for Alana he’d forget to eat too. It wasn’t something he did on purpose, he just got so lost in his work and Alana came by regularly as a friend and because she was doing a study on empathy disorders for her PhD. Will was an excellent candidate for her study, hence her coming around. He wasn’t entirely sure how but she never made her presence feel like he was being observed, or maybe he was picking up on her emotions and reading her actions in a different way. It was hard to tell most days when he could read motivations even the person who had them didn’t know about.

“The secret is good time management and online classes. I get bored when idle,” Hannibal tells Will in a pleasant, accented voice. He offers Will a smile and, almost against his will, he smiles back. Picking up on Hannibal’s emotions, he knew, and he had piqued Hannibal’s interest. He tended to do that to people who were interested in the mind.

“So do I but I don’t think I’d try and balance more classes on top of a residency. Aren’t you supposed to be a surgeon or something?” he asks, remembering details Alana told him weeks ago when she first brought him up. He wasn’t sure, which was rare for him, but he was certain she was trying to set him up with Hannibal. If she wasn’t than Hannibal seemed smitten enough to do it himself given the vibes Will was getting off the guy. Something about it was different than the way sexual interest usually came across to him, though. There was something more… clinical from what he felt from Hannibal. No, maybe it wasn’t sexual interest he was reading. It was curiosity- something beyond what Alana felt. There was something else behind Hannibal’s curiosity that wasn’t there with Alana.

“The classes are simple and they don’t take up very much of my time. The trick is to only take one a semester to avoid overloading myself. Studying human anatomy takes more time than psychology but I have plenty of practice,” he says. There’s something to that, Will can feel it, but he isn’t sure what. He’d need more evidence for that. His teachers were always telling him that too, that he needed more evidence but the evidence was always there, they just didn’t see it. He saw everything thanks to his ability to empathize with literally anyone. His classmates found it unnerving, something that was only made worse by his lack of eye contact and constant twitching.

“I don’t doubt that,” Will mumbles and his tone seems to surprise Hannibal. Alana and Margot look surprised too because Will said that like he knew something about Hannibal that no one else did. He guessed that was true, he felt something there, but he couldn’t put a name to it. All he had were feelings and right now they amounted to little more than a basic impression that there was a lot more to Hannibal that met the eye.

“Were on the spectrum do you sit?” Hannibal asks, changing the subject and Alana visibly relaxes. A subject she was familiar with- Alana was always more confortable when she could anticipate what was next and analyze it. Maybe that’s what drew her to Margot-who had clear ambitions and goals and was unafraid to do what she needed to in order to achieve what she wanted. She was easy, and when she wasn’t she was happy to explain why. Will liked her for the same reasons Alana did, or maybe he only felt that way because Margot was only around when Alana was. His own feelings were hard to decipher sometimes.

“I’m closer to Autism and Asperger’s than narcissist and sociopath,” Will says bluntly, earning a sharp laugh out of Hannibal.

“Wonderful, then. And some kind of empathy disorder too, right? Alana has mentioned you when discussing her research,” Hannibal explains.

He nods, understanding the obvious connection there. “Yeah. That too. I have… unusually high levels of empathy- I can empathize with pretty much anyone. Mostly it’s an annoying habit that means I know more about the crimes that I study than anyone else and my teachers find it… irritating.” They were always asking where his evidence came from, telling him he was making leaps that no one could possibly make but that wasn’t true given that he made those leaps regularly. To him the evidence was as obvious as the blood splatter on the walls but no one else saw things like he did. The only one who seemed to be alright with his leaps of faith was Jack Crawford, who found the ability fascinating and occasionally asked Will about cases he was working on. Alana advised him against it, telling him it was a bad idea to take on the personalities of serial killers Crawford was after. He didn’t disagree but he found the process strangely drawing.

Hannibal laughs again, “irritating? I find that fascinating. So, any interesting insights to crimes I will have heard about?” he asks, earning a dirty look from Alana for his efforts.

*

The next time Hannibal meets Will he’s stuck in the middle of a party that his roommate dragged him to against his will. He’s been stranded while his roommate went to go hook up with someone, leaving Will to the metaphorical wolves. “Situations like this must be hell for you,” Hannibal says in his ear, sneaking up behind him and making him jump. It was an unusual feeling for Will, being snuck up on, but with all the people and emotions running around him picking up on Hannibal’s strange cocktail of emotions wasn’t as easy as it normally would be.

“It is,” he says simply, not bothering to elaborate or make eye contact. This was when people went away, assuming Will had no interest in conversation even if he did. To be fair usually people were right in assuming he didn’t want to speak to them but Hannibal doesn’t go away.

“Come with me then, lets get away from all of this… noise,” he says, his lightly accented voice carrying nicely over the music that was assaulting Will’s eardrums. It had taken Will time, and asking Alana, to figure out where the accent was from given that he didn’t hear much of it. Lithuania. Will found the accent attractive.

He follows Hannibal away from the noise wordlessly, happy to have been given an escape and someone to focus on. It was easier to ignore all the things around him if he had something in front of him to focus on and Hannibal was interesting. The way Will felt him was different than the way others felt to him- there was something different about how Hannibal handled himself. And his interest in Will was, while obvious, tempered and reserved. Almost like a cat watching a mouse but more curious and less predatory. It was refreshing.

“I hate parties,” Will says as soon as they find themselves on a deck. With the music so far behind them it was more like a dull roar than a loud shrieking in his ear. He probably should have moved out here before but sometimes when he felt too much he froze. This must have been one of those times.

“Than how, pray tell, did you find yourself at one?” Hannibal asks, raising an eyebrow.

Will laughs softly, “pushy roommate. Thinks getting out will be good for me but abandoned me pretty much as soon as we got here. Pretty sure he only wanted the keys to my car, which he currently has so I guess that was a success,” he mumbles.

Hannibal raises an eyebrow again, “you didn’t drive?”

“No. I don’t like driving much so I stupidly let him drive and now I’m stuck here,” Will says, kicking himself in the ass for not seeing this coming.

“You’d think with your empathetic abilities you would have been able to guess his intentions. I supposed even empaths have their limits,” Hannibal says. His tone is somewhat ambiguous so Will risks a glance over to find the faintest of smiles on Hannibal’s face and his eyes were crinkled a little at the corners. Will huffs out a small laugh at Hannibal’s bad joke.

“Guess so. So what on earth encouraged you to show up to a party after spending all day in a hospital? You still smell like antiseptic,” Will explains as Hannibal tilts his head a little in curiosity.

“The possibility of running into someone interesting,” Hannibal says, “and I have. If you would like I can get your keys,” he offers.

Will considers saying no because he doubted Hannibal could get them back but he reconsiders for a moment, curious as to how this would all play out. No, _Hannibal_ was curious as to how this would all play out, Will was just picking up on it. Its Hannibal’s curiously that gets him to agree and he takes off, offering Will a small, confident smile before he maneuvers himself back into the party. This was going to go terribly but if Hannibal succeeded he could leave, if he didn’t he was already stuck here. It was a win-win really. Well, more of a win- I’m-already-stuck-here-so-it-can’t-get-worse.

“You hang out with _Lecter_?” a familiar voice asks and Will turns, his mood changing on a dime to something a little more up beat. Beverly Katz’ presence made sense to him given the mood change.

“What’s wrong with Lecter?” he asks, raising an eyebrow in almost a challenge. The action was almost more Beverly’s than his but his own question was mixed in there somewhere.

Beverly shrugs, “nothing per se, he’s just weird.”

Will snorts, “ _I’m_ weird, Beverly,” he points out.

“Yeah, but not like Lecter. Don’t you get like an odd vibe off him or something?” she asks. She’s asking to confirm her own opinion, Will can feel it. He can also feel that she didn’t exactly have a high opinion of Hannibal either. Her opinion on him wasn’t low either, but she didn’t seem to like him much.

“I get an odd vibe from everyone, Beverly, be more specific,” he tells her.

She opens her mouth to respond but Hannibal reappears, holding out Will’s keys with a victorious smile on his face. “I come bearing gifts,” he says and hands over Will’s keys.

He laughs and takes them, shaking his head. “Do I even want to know what happened? You were gone for what, five minutes?” he asks.

“Seven,” Beverly confirms. “I’ll see you in class, Will. Have a good night,” she says and with that she takes off. Will looks after her, confused about her abrupt exit but Hannibal sighs.

“We’ve met. Didn’t get along much, I’m afraid. Her exit had nothing to do with you,” he tells Will in a considerate tone, addressing Will’s concerns before he even voiced them.

He decides to ignore Beverly’s exit and sighs, “well okay then. Seriously though, what happened with my roommate?”

Hannibal smiles wide, “oh, I just informed him that he was rude and that he should hand over your keys. He complied,” he says.

Will snorts, “you must have said that in one hell of a scary tone if he listened.”

*

It’s early in the morning when Will gets an early morning wake up call. He’s half pinned under Hannibal’s body so he has to wiggle out from under him and by then the knocking grows louder. “Jesus, I’m coming,” Will yells towards to door, flinching as he remembered Hannibal was sleeping behind him. He wraps an abandoned blanket from the floor around his shoulders and grabs his glasses, jamming them onto his face as he opens the door to the small apartment space. “What?” he snaps, realizing too late he was talking to the police. He thought that it was his roommate coming home drunk in the early morning- it wouldn’t be the first time and Will had no idea if he’d come home any time before that.

He gets brief introductions and then they ask about his roommate. Will squints at them, “I don’t know, last I saw him we were at a party,” he says.

“And he didn’t come home?” the taller cop asks.

Will shrugs, “don’t know,” he says honestly.

The shorter cop raises an eyebrow, “you don’t know if you roommate came home last night?” he asks.

“No?” Will asks more than states because he found the question stupid.

“Any reason for that?” the taller cop asks. Will wonders if they’re trying to play Good Cop Bad Cop and failing miserably at it.

“He was occupied,” a light, accented voice says from behind him. Will turns to find Hannibal standing at the end of the short hallway looking unmistakable sex-mussed. Well, that answered that.

“Yes, occupied. Well occupied,” Will adds partially because it’s true and partially because he wants the cops off his back. He could feel their urgency and anxiousness and he didn’t like it.

“Sorry to interrupt but I have to get to the hospital. Residency calls,” Hannibal says, smiling pleasantly at Will. He doesn’t envy Hannibal’s schedule, especially considering he apparently took extra classes too. The man had to be a masochist.

“Good luck,” Will tells him as he passes, gently making his way past the officers at the door. They watch him go suspiciously but they already knew he had an alibi thanks to Will’s obvious activities with him the night before. Which conveniently gave Will an alibi too. “So,” he says to the police when Hannibal is gone, “what stupidity did my roommate get himself into to require your presence?” he asks.

The cops raise their eyebrows in sync, “murder,” the shorter one says.

Will’s eyes practically bug out of his head, “oh my _god_ , he murdered someone?” he asks, shock taking over as he tried to remember if he was _that_ drunk that he’d miss his roommate’s potential goals to kill someone.

The taller cop frowns, “no, _he_ was murdered.”

Will frowns, “oh. Well that’s unfortunate,” he says for lack of anything better.

*

Alana looks worried, “you’re sure you’re okay?” she asks for the millionth time. Margot looks ready to tell her to shut up and Will keeps picking up on her irritation. She thought Will was stronger than Alana did and she didn’t like that Alana coddled him. He agreed, or maybe he agreed because Margot agreed. The line was blurry.

“I’m fine. Besides, Hannibal likes playing therapist so I’ve been talking to him,” he says. Talking to him a _lot_ considering Hannibal spent almost all of his time either at the hospital he was doing his residency in, sleeping, or taking a spare psychology course or two with what little time he had left. He found Will’s assumptions that he was a masochist _hilarious_ but he had to wonder about someone who put that much pressure on themselves and then there was his relationship with Will to consider. He put plenty of time into that too, including the occasional lunch dates throughout the week. Will was more than a little impressed with Hannibal’s ability to balance his time. He could barely manage getting his essays done and figuring out how to shoot a gun. Alana took to giving him lessons so he didn’t shoot anybody. Or himself.

“ _Hannibal_ likes to play therapist?” she asks, obviously surprised.

“I don’t know why that’s a shock to you, Hannibal likes feeling needed,” Margot says. “Isn’t that why he’s a doctor?”

“Actually I think he’s a doctor because he likes cutting people up, but sure. He likes feeling needed,” Will says, getting a _look_ from Alana.

“That was in poor taste,” she says in an almost annoyed tone.

Will frowns as Margot covers her mouth to hide her smile, “why? Because my roommate was found carved open like a Thanksgiving turkey or because you for some reason think that the comment was an insult to Hannibal? I’m just saying you have to enjoy surgery to want to do it,” he says, holding his hands up in surrender.

“He makes a point, Lana,” Margot throws out in his defense.

“Thank you Margot,” he says.

“Don’t encourage him. And the answer is both. You know Hannibal disapproves of rudeness and that comment was rude,” Alana says.

Will shrugs, “so was my roommate.” Will couldn’t say he felt _sorry_ for the loss or maybe he was picking up on Hannibal’s emotions. He didn’t seem to like Will’s previous roommate much, citing that he didn’t like what he heard about how he treated Will. That, and Hannibal had a strong intolerance for rudeness.

*

“Please tell Alana that watching a horror movie won’t turn you into a psycho killer,” Margot says to Will, ambushing him on a date with Hannibal. He squints at her in confusion and Hannibal gives her an unimpressed look that she ignores. He should, in theory, be getting peace on his college campus but Margot was tenacious. She’d find him anywhere if her need to get cheap thrills was strong enough. “I wanted to invite you two to a scary movie night but Alana says it’s bad for your health. So tell her that you won’t be one of those guys those weird senators talk about on the news that claim horror movies made you kill people.”

He can’t help but start laughing, which seems to relax Hannibal a bit. “ _What_?” he asks, laughing harder the more he thought about a news story floating around about him killing someone because of a _movie_.

“See? I told her this was ridiculous too. I just wanted to have a Halloween movie night and I ended up with Alana lecturing me on empathy disorders. Can you see my pain?” she asks.

So he could. He got frequent lectures on empathy disorders too, especially if he spent any time in places that were crowded, loud, or otherwise bad for his metal health. Jack Crawford’s office was one of those places too. Hannibal encouraged him to help where he could though, telling him that maybe putting his empathy to use would help him resent it less. Will was inclined to listen to Hannibal over Alana but that’s probably because to some extent Hannibal was telling him what he wanted to hear. It made him wonder if Hannibal’s advice was because he wanted to impress Will by telling him to do what he wanted in a way that was almost as informed as Alana or if that curiosity of his extended further into Will’s life and he wasn’t as up front about it as Alana. Or maybe he had no idea what Hannibal was thinking and that was the way he liked it. Hannibal was… quiet where everyone was loud. He was a breath of fresh air.

“No worries Margot, I’m not about to kill anyone if we watch Scream. But I prefer the fourth one,” he says.

Margot snorts, “post-post modern horror. Why am I not surprised?” she asks more to herself than Will or Hannibal.

“I’m just saying the whole franchise is excellent but that one is my favorite. But the movie inside a movie inside a movie from the first one was brilliant and the guy that played one of the killers also played Shaggy in Scooby Doo. If you want to have run imagine that’s Shaggy in his teen years,” he says. Though that wouldn’t explain why he was so shitty at solving mysteries. Or how he acquired a talking dog of all things.

Hannibal smiles, “I prefer the movie Sinister. It has a much more compelling plotline than any slasher movie,” he says.

“I don’t care as long as people die, preferably in bloody way,” Margot says. “So great, it’s settled, you won’t go nuts and we’re doing a movie night at my place at seven on Friday. And I know you’re off then Hannibal, so feel free so tag along with Will,” she says, grinning at them before she takes off.

Will shakes his head, “I can’t believe Alana thinks that a slasher movie would make me go insane,” he says.

“I think she just has your best interest in mind. Even if I think she’s overprotective of you. She treats you like a delicate flower but you’re stronger than that,” he says. He gives Will a once over that makes Will feel like Hannibal sees him as much as Will sees others. It’s unnerving but also attractive in a weird way. Plus he liked that Hannibal thought it was strong. So few people did.

*

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Alana says, giving Will and Margot an irritated look.

“Are we going to watch the Amityville Horror? The original, not the shitty remake with Ryan Reynolds. He’s pretty but ultimately unsatisfying in that movie,” Will says.

“I’m partial to Freddy Kruger in all forms if we’re going for slasher films. The original Halloween is also excellent,” Hannibal adds. “And I cooked.”

This gets everyone’s attention and after Hannibal’s latest habit of cooking for Will- how he even found the time he had no clue- he understood why everyone was suddenly less interested in his imminent breakdown. Hannibal’s cooking was _impressive_ to say the least and apparently he’d only just started experimenting. Will was keen to be brought new experiments of Hannibal’s even if he felt sort of like a cat owner being brought a mouse by an exasperated cat that thought its owner was too stupid to feed itself. Except Hannibal’s meals were much better than mice.

“Please tell be you brought that rice dish,” Margot says, hands pressed together in a literal plea.

“Or that pesto pasta you made the last time you made us dinner,” Alana adds.

“Those eggs you gave me were really good,” Will throws out mostly to fit in. Hannibal chooses to focus on him, laughing a little.

“I made you something new. Margot and Alana have had the privilege of having my cooking before but you are new to my foods. So I made you this,” Hannibal says and he removes a dish from his bag and hands it to Will. He gives Alana and Margot their own dishes, both of them making happy noises when they find what’s inside. Curiously Will lifts the lid to his still-warm container and makes a noise that he’d probably be embarrassed to make any other time at the smell. Thankfully Alana and Margot had basically identical reactions so he doesn’t feel so bad for making a noise that was near pornographic at the amazing smell wafting from Hannibal’s food.

“Where have you been all my life and where can I find more of you?” he asks Hannibal, who shakes his head.

“Had you made a trip to your local hospital we probably could have met sooner,” he says.

Will shakes his head, “I’d rather die than willingly step foot in a hospital with all those sick and depressing people,” he says, shuddering. Now _there_ was a horror movie, him stuck in a hospital having to feel everyone’s horrible emotions around him.

“The good news is that you have a doctor at home now,” Hannibal tells him. “Now eat your soup.”

*

Will frowns at Hannibal’s things, wondering how this all happened not that he was really complaining. Hannibal was hardly home thanks to his crazy work schedule and being on call all the time and when he was home he either cooked or curled up with psychology texts and texted Alana for opinions. It didn’t change the fact that Will went from living with his annoying roommate with a penchant for partying and never taking out the trash to living with Hannibal, who was so clean and organized he cleaned Will’s room too. When this happened Will had no idea and he was beginning to suspect Hannibal was a vampire given that he must never sleep.

“What are you frowning at so hard over there?” Hannibal asks, looking at Will over the top of an abnormal psychology textbook.

He shakes his head, “nothing particularly interesting. I’m just trying to figure out when I allowed all this to happen- you moving in and cooking for me and cleaning all my stuff and whatever. I think this might be the weirdest but sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me even if I have no idea when it happened,” he says. It wasn’t like he and Hannibal had been together all that long either- Alana had been surprised to hear Hannibal was moving in but honestly it was news to Will too. He complied because Hannibal made him these amazing stuffed raviolis after being offended that Will basically lived off the canned stuff. He refused to let Will eat anything out of a can or a box now even if Will has a secret stash of chips in his room. And admittedly he could never eat canned raviolis the same way again given that Hannibal made a far better dish.

Hannibal smiles, “you’ll find I’m quite adept at getting what I want,” he says, just his eyes showing over the top of his text but they’re crinkled in the corners so he’s smiling.

Will lets out a huff of laughter, “oh I already knew that. No one else could even begin to manage your workload on top of apparently learning to be a chef and also finding time to clean literally everything in the apartment, including my drawers. I feel like I should be violated by you snooping through my stuff but mostly I’m oddly relieved that my underwear is properly organized.” That _had_ to be something that he was picking up from Hannibal because he really didn’t care about his underwear on any given day once he was sure it was clean.

This gets a long laugh out of Hannibal as he sets the text down, “well, that empathy of yours will certainly be interesting to toy with,” he says, walking over to Will in a very deliberate way. Will feels like he should feel like he’s being hunted but mostly he’s hungry though he isn’t sure if it’s for food. Hannibal comes to a stop in front of Will, “tell me, how do you feel?” he asks, head cocked to the side.

Will examines Hannibal as much as Hannibal examines him, mirroring his feelings unintentionally. “I kind of want to sleep,” he says eventually and Hannibal smiles, shaking his head.

“Alana wasn’t kidding when she said you picked up on the most subtle of clues. Most wouldn’t pick up on my exhaustion at all,” he says. The funny thing was that Will didn’t either, not consciously, but he wasn’t going to disrupt the praise either. He liked it. Or maybe Hannibal did. No, that was definitely him.

“Well, I guess the empathy is finally useful. My super power is being able to tell that Hannibal Lecter is tired. Which is probably the worst super power ever,” he admits.

Hannibal lips twitch up a little, “maybe not. I’m used to ignoring the cues, you could be useful to me. A surgeon needs sleep,” he says.

Will yawns loudly, “well, so does the rumpled criminology student. Do you even have a bed?” he asks, thinking too late that he didn’t see one in Hannibal’s space. There was a desk but no bed.

Hannibal’s slight smile grows, “yes, yours. Lets go,” he says, walking out of the kitchen and fully expecting Will to follow. He does, eyebrows drawing together as Hannibal gives Will a satisfied look over his shoulder. Adept at getting what he wants, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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